As you might have read, one of the biggest Hollywood payroll companies, Axium, went out of the business in early January due to the Writers Guide strike. It so happens that a subsidiary of Axium, Avalon Visual, serviced Playboy Entertainment Group (the division which includes Playboy TV and Playboy Radio, among other departments)
That means that any paychecks issued in the second half of December came back as unpayable. It is now the second week of February, and 150 of the stiffed employees are yet to be paid. PEG’s human resources department continues to procrastinate.
Whispers from employees are thinking that maybe Playboy doesn’t have the cash-on-hand to re-issue the checks. Why haven’t these people been paid?
Not sure whats going on but I’m willing to bet that Hugh Hefner is still getting paid and the 3 whores that hang around with him are still getting paid.
If this story is true its only the hard working people within the company that will get fucked her. Playboy is pathetic and out-dated anyways. Mansion parties? Who the fuck cares. I’d rather goto a REAL party where is the host is young enough to not need viagra.
How is that possible? Playboy is a cash cow.
“Playboy is a cash cow.”
What’s next, genius? Elvis is alive and married to Marilyn Monroe, and Al Gore is president, right?! In case if you haven’t noticed, we’re living in 2008, not 1988. Palyboy stopped being a cash cow back when you were srill dealing with your mid-life crisis. The past few years, they’ve been struggling to keep their head out of the water. Unlike the small town you’re living in, the rest of the world does change, some times for better, most of the times for worst.
Playboy is a publicly held company. You can easily look this stuff up.
Playboy’s latest Quarterly Income Statement shows $82 million in Revenues and $14 million in profits for tthe quarter. The Quarter before that, they has revenues of $85 million and profits of $14.5 million. The company still turns a nice profit on the Internet and makes a very nice profit on licensing.
They are not hurting for cash. Their payroll company disappeared on them, causing an Accounting nightmare.
I never said Palyboy were hurting for cash, I said they were struggling to stay relevant in a world where any Joe Shmoe can videograph fucking his wife and call himself a pornographer. 14.5 Million quarterly profit for a company as large as Playboy is not very imppresive. Times are changing, Playboy is no longer as relevant and exciting as it was 30 years ago, and once Hugh Hefner dies, Playboy as we know it will more likely die with him.
I agree that Playboy is no longer as relevant and exciting as it was 30 years ago. I think Hefner hasn’t changed with the times.
But Luke article said “Whispers from employees are thinking that maybe Playboy doesn’t have the cash-on-hand to re-issue the checks” and then you followed up with “The past few years, they’ve been struggling to keep their head out of the water.”.
I’m just pointing out that they are actually making pretty good money. For the first three quarters of 2007, they did 90 Million in profits on 254 million. For most companies, a 35% margin is actually doing very well.
I’m not trying to say that I think their marketing is innovative or that they are still what they once were. But based upon their financials, I don’t think they are having trouble coming up with cash to pay their employees.
as long as you make a profit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080212/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_gm
Hey,
No offense, but you guys are looking at this in the wrong Direction:
$14.5 million in Profit doesn’t mean that they are doing okay, it means that unfortunately, they could not write down more in pre tax expenses, so $14.5 million is what they showed as NET profit after they deducted EVERYTHING that they use to defer pretax profit from the business. This includes Salaries for the Principals, bonuses, 401K, supplimental 401K, & other pre- & post tax savings plans, expenses, Key insurance Policies, travel, the mansion (it’s a business expense).
Yes, this is all profit too, it’s why you go into business, for the perks. Showing $14.5 million in profit means that they only declared $11 million in expenses from the gross profit, I would assume (assuming that they had a pretax profit of 30% gross revenue, or $25.5 million).
Now, of that $11 million, how much is paid out as royalties to Hugh Hefner for use of the Playboy symbol (he came up w/ it, right?/), The name, and other assorted licensing that actually diverts money directly in Hefner’s accounts? As they say in France, “It’s Good to be the King…”
Kids, this is how the game is played. you take as many slices of the pie as you can, and justifiy it by telling the IRS, the public, and those unversed in corporate accounting that it goes to someone else…
The Colonel wrote:
“Playboy is a cash cow.”
What’s next, genius? Elvis is alive and married to Marilyn Monroe, and Al Gore is president, right?! In case if you haven’t noticed, we’re living in 2008, not 1988. Palyboy stopped being a cash cow back when you were srill dealing with your mid-life crisis. The past few years, they’ve been struggling to keep their head out of the water. Unlike the small town you’re living in, the rest of the world does change, some times for better, most of the times for worst.
Posted on 12-Feb-08 at 1:05 am
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I’m not just talking about the magazine but everything that is in the Playboy empire that’s a cash cow.
And I haven’t gone through a mid-life crisis yet because I’m still in my twenties. And I live in a big city, not a small town.
This is the problem when you outsource core services such as payroll to a third party. The Third Party pays the employees of Playboy and Playboy pays them.